Currently sitting in muggy Central Coast having post-birthday catch ups with the Family. Being a good daughter and granddaughter is something I’m good at. Ha ha ha.
So while I’m hiding from the heat and bogans inside, I shall tell you a story about my 27th birthday lunch with that wonderful Aunt of mine at The Palace Tea Room located in the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney.
the Aunt and I had lunch in the QVB two weeks beforehand discussing where we should go for my birthday.. because that is the most important thing for an only child like me *cue evil laugh*. As we left the cafe, we walked past The Palace Tea Room and looked at the menus sitting on the outside tables. I saw the blessed words gluten free afternoon tea. Meaning that anyone could just turn up and ask for it without pre-booking beforehand. We asked the lovely host about booking a table for two for the 29th (Monday) and was quite happy to book for us and answered all my questions about the tea. Sadly it wasn’t dairy-free (considering most afternoon/high teas are dairy-loaded it was a slim chance that they could do a dairy-free option). I am ok with some dairy (as stated before, I think I’m not ok with high-fat foods in large amounts.. the joys of side-effects of the whipple) but the main issue was onion and I was assured that there was no onion in the afternoon tea, there was garlic (I’m ok with garlic thank god).
So the 29th arrived and I turned 27. Had my drunken-fun on the Saturday before dealing with the stupid CBD lock-out laws. And arrived at The Palace Tea Room at 12:30pm and was directed to the small table by the window with the typical Sydney view of CentrePoint Tower and construction work.. aahhh Sydney.
Was greeted with a delicious-looking European waiter and was offered the choice to have my tea (I wanted the chocolate flavoured one which disgusted the Aunt) now or later. I choose later but requested my glass of sparkling wine first.. after all it is my birthday! He grinned and wished me a happy birthday as he left and soon returned with my Aunts tea and my sparkling wine, nom nom.
And a few minutes later we received our giant afternoon teas. The Aunt had the normal one while I had the gluten free and I must say comparing the two, I wasn’t disappointed! Really, I couldn’t tell the difference between the two except for the scones her one was giant and fluffy and mine had the all-tell signs of gluten free flour (dense and flat).
Gluten free at the front and the normal one at the back-right
The waitress who brought our delicious looking treats happily asked us if we wanted a ‘tour’ around the plates. Now I have been very tired lately these last few weeks due to my crazy working hours and honestly I wasn’t paying attention but I did pick up on the words of ‘cherry pie, crab, lamington, basil grapefruit cherry slice and blueberry cupcake’. And of course the traditional scone with cream and jam. The Aunt hates grapefruit and automatically gave me her slice which I didn’t finish, my own one was just enough citrus to last me a lifetime (citrus makes ill as well… stupid Whipple).
Gluten free Afternoon with a sneaky extra grapefruit basil and cherry slice from the Aunt
We tucked right in, trying both sweet and savoury. None of that modern nonsense of savoury first – sweet after. We’re following the old traditions of the Tudor era of ALL THE THINGS NOW!
The sandwiches were lovely, tuna with sun dried tomatoes and mayonnaise, the Aunt’s one had egg (jealous!). The small savoury biscuit had a delicious smoked bacon filling and I wanted more!
The sweet stuff was very sweet, very sweet. But that is the point, just that too much sweetness my poor half-pancreas doens’t agree with. Though out of the sweet treats my favourite was the lamington that was more of a slice rather than the traditional lamington. Still very delicious along with the cherry pie. If I wasn’t sure that I did in fact have the gluten-free tea I did after trying to pass the cherry pie to the Aunt and the crust broke apart (a curse with gluten free baking). The grapefruit and basil slice thingy was fresh and interesting but not very exciting.
Now I have to admit to something. I have never had a macaron in my life.. and after I tried this one I can see why I never have. WAY too sweet for me, but lucky for you readers I have my intelligent Aunt to test hers and said it was a good macaron. It was bursting with flavour and chewy so kudos to The Palace for making a great macaron, difficult little things to make.
Lastly we tucked into our scones. And I have to say, making a gluten free scone is quite hard, I swear I could break the window with mine, but once I ripped it open – rule one: you never cut a scone – it was quite nice with naughty cream and berry jam.
A lovely ending of afternoon tea. In the end I decided against making my tea (which I was surprised that it hadn’t arrived yet, oh well) was I was full as hell. But the cheeky waiter suggested another wine.. hellz yeah! And ended with a historical chat about English upper-class families, you know, as one does while partaking with High Tea.
Sure I felt a little unwell due to the amount of fattening dairy products, but I wasn’t too bad. So I am happy to return to The Palace Tea Room in the future if I want to splurge and suffer the semi-effects, I will!
Great staff, beautiful clean china and delicious fresh food all the comfort of the historical QVB.
Happy Whipple Girl with birthday treats
So thank you to The Palace Tea Room for a wonderful Monday birthday lunch and thank you to my Aunt Harriet for a lovely birthday treat!
The Aunt Harriet and I
The Whipple Girl's Cookbook 